


City of Dreaming Books - a slightly different ending

by EveandJohnny



Category: Zamonia - Fandom
Genre: Bookholm, City Of Dreaming Books, Death, Multi, Romance, Violence, Zamonia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 08:58:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4660497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveandJohnny/pseuds/EveandJohnny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would happen if Optimus Yarnspinner is not the only person who stumbles into the Shadow King's realm Shadowhall Castle? And when this person is human as Homuncolossus used to be? Would it alter the course of their fates in the of City of Dreaming Books? Here's the answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	City of Dreaming Books - a slightly different ending

We were deeply within a conversation when Homuncolossus suddenly stood up, stopped talking and turned his gaze away from me as if he was listening to something far off. He held his hand up and commanded “Don’t move!”. Then he rustlingly rushed off.  
Puzzled, I scratched my head. What had happened? He seemed to have heard something that had escaped my ears. I looked questioningly at one of the Living Books although I know I wouldn’t get an answer.  
  
  Just a few moments later Homuncolossus was back in the room. The paper scraps which covered his body were trembling like after a run in high speed. But otherwise there was no evidence for this thanks to the insane mechanisms inside his body. I noticed a small bundle of filthiness in his arms.  
  “Take off your coat and lay it on the throne!” he shouted at me.  
I hesitated for a moment so he growled “Paper doesn’t warm.”  
As if this made anything clear – I was even more confused. However, I obeyed now and put my coat on the chair. Homuncolossus stepped to the throne and let the bundle carefully slide out of his arms. As I noticed with surprise, it was a female human being that crouched there and shook heavily. But what was actually much more flabbergasting was the Shadow King’s behaviour towards the young woman.  
Carefully, nearly tenderly he closed my coat around her. He turned to me and his gaze was cold and penetrating again.  
 “Collect all candles and arrange them around the throne!”   
I nodded and he vanished in one of the countless hallways. So, I walked around the room from candlestick to candlestick, took the moveable ones to the throne and picked the other candles from their holders. I gathered them around the throne and sat down at its base. Suddenly I felt a soft touch on my shoulder.  
 “What’s your name?” a barely audible voice whispered above me.  
I turned around.  
A pale face with dark eyes was looking out of my coat, framed by black, tousled bangs.  
“I am Optimus Yarnspinner” I said.  
She tried to smile but it failed abjectly. However, she still managed to reach out her massively trembling hand.  
 I shook it a little startled.  
“Pleased to meet you, I am Marjanna.”  
  
Now Homuncolossus entered the room. He carried a tablet with a jug of water, a glass and a bowl full of roasted bookworms. He knelt down beside me but didn’t give me a look whatsoever. He only had attention for Marjanna. She straightened a little and took the filled water glass from Homuncolossus. The water flowed down her throat in big greedy gulps; I heard the gurgling. After putting down the glass, she grabbed a bookworm and nibbled it. She didn’t eat any more because she fell asleep very quickly.  
 The Shadow King stood up and considered something, and then he said to me “Take care of her. I will look for blankets. In case she should wake up while I’m not around yet, feed her the bookworms.”  
 With that order he vanished the third time in a short period.  
I didn’t expect her to wake up any time soon or wake up at all. After all that had surely happened to her in the labyrinth it was very likely that she would die right here. I don’t say that I wished for it but I was also rational enough to realize that this might be her last day on earth. I stood up, covered her appropriately and had a look around. The Living Books watched us curiously. I sighed and waited for Homuncolossus.

                                                                                                                                  ***

When I say, I had taken to listen to Homuncolossus and Marjanna talking, so is that, to be frankly honest, not very polite but it was the truth.  
She usually sat at his feet and leaned on his knee when he was telling her stories. She then caressed his paper skin which made a soft crackling noise.  
 Meanwhile, I had learned from their talks that Marjanna didn’t come from the colony of humans in the Midgard Mountains but from the continent Eurasia. So I was understandably startled that she was able to speak Zamonian. But she could because her aim had been a journey around the world and therefore she had learned several languages, including Zamonian. She had worked in a bakery to earn enough money and then had fled the orphanage she had lived in her whole life. After visiting a few countries in Europe she had taken one of the rare ships that were doing business in Europe and Zamonia. It was a miracle that she made it from the coast to Bookholm. Between Hackonia, where she landed, and Bookholm the Wotan’s Cleft is located, which you cannot pass without much trouble. But she crossed it and, which is much of a miracle, too, did not meet any of the dangerous creatures populating the continent. What is also telling much of her was that she came all the way to Bookholm afoot. That was, for a human, an astonishing achievement. Finally having arrived in Bookholm, she found the only bookshop that sold literature written by humans. Its sales quantity was not too high but presumably Phistomel Smyke made his concert goers buy there when they were in trance. In any case, the antiquarian – by the way a Vulphead, not a human – told her stories about nightly stampedes of visitors. Marjanna showed him some manuscripts of hers. They were actually pretty good. The ones I have read were better than some compositions from Lindworm Castle. The Vulphead realized her potential and the danger she would be for Smyke. A human writing poetry with an above-average quality was one of the last things Smyke could do with. So the antiquarian sent Marjanna to Darkman Street 333. At first she was fascinated by Smyke and his cot, but she soon noticed that something wrong was going on. By then it was already too late, though. She had been poisoned and brought into the catacombs. She came across some bookhunters but could escape miraculously every encounter. The Shadow King didn’t help her a single time, probably because he didn’t notice her in the labyrinth as she didn’t wreakhavoc as I had. She eked out a living all by her own. Being a human, she was quite tough. She had seen the charred Leather Grotto, where another bunch of bookhunters dwelled. There she found the ashes of burned books and the dust of charred booklings. On her deeper way into the catacombs, she came upon the constructions of the Rusty Gnomes. Down there, Marjanna luckily didn’t meet any Harpyrs. But how she managed to survive the end of the railway is still a riddle to me. Of course, those adventures left their traces. She reached Shadowhall Castle half dead.  
  Since Marjanna was living in the castle, Homuncoloss showed a different side of himself. He was still trying abrasively to teach me writing with my left claw. But with her around he was courteous, kind and obviously also quite humorous. I often heard her melodious laughter ringing through the hallways. Sometimes I saw her sitting on his lap and they were silent together. Then it sparkled suspiciously in Homuncolossus’s dead eye holes.

There is one of their talks I want to depict before I go on with the actual story. It was one of the seldom evenings when we three were all dining together. The girl and I sat at the base of the throne and Homuncolossus was telling the last sequence of his story – his encounter with his reflection and the withdrawal to Shadowhall Castle – and finished with the words “I am a monster!”.  
 I agreed with that after everything he had told me about himself.  
 But Marjanna shook resolutely her head and stood up.  
“If you really were a monster, you would have killed Optimus and me long time ago. Him, because he brought you unwittingly the very manuscript that was your doom. Me, because I remind you of your human life and all the things Smyke had hi-jacked you. But you didn’t kill us because there are still feelings in you. You had found someone in Optimus to tell your stories to and make conversation if you let him answer you.”  
 I nodded as her speech corresponded to facts.  
But she then mentioned something that amazed me and Homuncolossus even more.  
 “And what made you to keep me alive and feed me up was solely…love!”  
She let the sentences uncommented for a moment and looked triumphantly around.  
I gasped. To be honest, I had sometimes used the term “sweet on him” when it came to their relationship. Still, it was different to hear it from her. Especially as there is a difference between “love” and “being sweet on somebody”. There is, my dear friends, isn’t there? Love is like the Big Bang while being sweet on someone more resembles mental derangements.  
Anyway, Homuncolossus was as perplex as I was. Yet, Marjanna wasn't finished creating confusion. She leaned forward and kissed Homuncolossus right on the lips. I myself have quite some restraints thinking about pressing my mouth on a razor-toothed monster covered with sharp-edged paper. She didn’t even seem to notice. She leaned back smilingly and wiped a tiny drop of blood from her mouth. Generally, her hands were littered with countless little cuts, how I just noticed. She simply shrugged her shoulders when she caught my scared gaze. Homuncolossus hadn’t said anything. He stayed silent, rose and took Marjanna’s hand. In an elegant, flowing movement he pulled her towards himself and started to dance to soundless waltz music. I understood and withdrew in one of the dark hallways.

***

The bookhunters encircled us closer and closer now, set their crossbows and aimed on us. I was breathing heavily; sweat ran down my spine in streams. Homuncolossus stood petrified and kept an eye on the superiority of our enemies. Marjanna was shaking like a leaf, but not because of fear, as I assumed, but of anger. She stepped in front. There was fierce determination flickering in her eyes.  
“It is indeed a strange team you meet here, isn’t it? A Lindworm, a monster created by Smyke and a non-Zamonian human stand in front of you and you have the efforts to kill the dinosaur and the Shadow King, because there are hefty bounties exposed on them. The human is merely an annoying tag that you will kill, too, just for fun. Still, you hesitate and listen to the ramblings of a mad woman.”  
Indeed, I started to believe the same. Had she gone insane on our way up? I could not explain her death courage otherwise.  
 “Be quiet!” Rongkong Coma sizzled and laughed gloat.  
 “Oh, shut the fuck up, Coma. You don’t tell me anything. The only one I might obey is the Shadow King. And not because he threatened me, no. I’ve seen much worse than to be frightened by a little paper. Nor do I fear you. You wear the most ridiculous armors, kill everything that gets in your way and get intoxicated by the profit. But everything of this is absurd! It shrinks on such a small space of sense at closer examination.”  
 She held thumb and index finger so tight one above the other that they almost touched.  
 “There is only one force in the universe that makes you so rich but plunges you in your ruin at the same time.”  
She took a dramatic breathe and I expected one of the bookhunters to silence her. Coma pulled his knife and aimed on her. Then her voice roared through the hall. “This is love!”  
To the evidence she turned around to Homuncolossus and kissed him passionately. He held her so close as if he would never let her go. But she straightened up and turned to me. It seemed to me as if she had forgotten the bookhunters altogether.  
 “Optimus” she whispered my name. Her gaze scurried to a ledge. “Get up there.”  
 I followed her gaze. There where books stacked with the Triadic Circle. What was she up to?  
“Throw them on the bookhunters. Maybe the Hazardous Books show some effect?”  
Why did she know that those were Hazardous Books? Just because the one that poisoned us three had a Triadic Circle on it didn’t mean all books with it were hazardous.  
“Hurry up!” she said impatiently.  
Well, my dear friends, I did as I was told. Immediately, half a dozen hunters focused on me. I cursed Marjanna and myself, because I always obeyed without asking questions. I had to get into the habit of saying ‘no’ more often. While I was climbing further I watched Marjanna.  
 She walked over to Rongkong Coma, who was laughingly swinging his axe.  
 “You will draw the short straw, girl” he snarled and the bookhunters’ laugh came like an echo.  
 She smiled condescendingly. “You’re lucky you didn’t say shrew.”  
I looked from my hiding to Homuncolossus. He was watching her astonished and dumbfounded at the same time. Now Marjanna stood directly in front of Coma – he was nearly a feet taller than her. She made a disgusted face.  
 “Use mouthwash the next time, you’re stinking nauseously.”  
Comas face darkened. “You’re insulting me, that is enough. I better finish you off.”  
 He lifted his sword, it swung down on her and I thought that her head would roll next to her in a moment. But she dived under his arm, kicked him so he fell forward and twisted the arm with his sword on his back. She pulled a short knife and drove it with full force into his cheek. Coma yelped in pain; viscous green blood flooded out of the wound. She seized the opportunity and grabbed his sword. But before she could kill Coma, a bookhunter had fired an arrow on her. She warded it off so skilled that it hit another hunter and he fell down lifeless.  
  
  I had almost forgotten my task while looking at her performance. So I threw experimentally one of the books. When it hit a bookhunter it exploded and the detonation tore two more apart. Well, that worked better out than expected! I wanted to throw another one but it turned to dust in my hands. I grabbed the next on, threw it and a blue cloud descended from it. Some bookhunters coughed and panted. They lost their balance and fell to the ground or against each other.  
Now Homuncolossus had begun to tidy up among them. He ripped off their heads or slashed them lengthwise. I flung more Hazardous Books which either exploded or poisoned the bookhunters.  
  I had so much pleasure killing bookhunters that I forgot about the fight between Marjanna and Coma.  
Suddenly Coma’s cry let the entire hall tremble. He stood on one of the highest shelves right beneath the ceiling.  
Marjanna squatted on another shelf; a deep bleeding cut trailed down her arm. Homuncolossus howled as if he had been hurt.  
 “You’ve lost, girl. Don’t waste your strength on something you cannot win” Coma said in canted mercy.  
She didn’t look at him but at his feet. He pulled his saber and held it like the enforcer who granted his victim one last word.  
 Now she looked him fiercely in the eyes and I could see the wild flare in her gaze. She opened her mouth and in the next moment her beastly war cry shook the cave. I had never heard a human cry like this before. You will remember my howl on the railroad of the Rusty Gnomes. Hers didn’t come close to that, of course. But it was martial enough to stop the fray entirely. Everybody looked up to the ceiling.  
 Then it was over quick. Marjanna darted upwards in a blur and swung Coma’s sword in his direction. There was a gurgling noise and Rongkong Coma’s head rolled clacking downhill. Marjanna jumped afterwards.  
 Immediately, a dozen bookhunters dashed at her. She made short work of them and sabered their heads off of their bodies. One after the other rolled to the ground. Pools of blood formed in all colours of the rainbow. I was very dismayed about Marjanna’s sangfroid. Then the carnage in the cave continued.

  
  In the end, even the last bookhunter had died. Red, green and deep black pools covered the floor in the grotto. Remnants of Hazardous Books lay scattered in the puddles. Enormous book snakes, the rests of once skyscraping folio stacks, extended in corners of the cave.

***

Marjanna was sobbing next to me. Her beloved Homuncolossus went slowly up in flames.  
 He had been a friend to me; for her he was the love of her life, fulfillment of her aspiring, reward and compensation for the martyrdom that she had experienced in the catacombs.  
Homuncolossus laughed and now I realized that he finally was happy and free. She didn’t dare to touch him which I totally understood as he was already burning brightly like a torch. He greeted me one last time and I said my goodbyes. Then he followed Smyke sizzling and crackling down through the hatch.  
 I looked again over to Marjanna to see surprised that she smiled animatedly, yes, nearly cunningly grinned.  
 “Farewell, my friend!  I’m glad that I met you. Optimus, you will be the grandest poet in whole Zamonia, I’m sure about that. Good luck on your way home. I will follow Homuncolossus.” She waved farewell and climbed down the stairs.  
 I imagined how she fell into his arms while everything was burning around them. United in death. Well, there came more comfortable ways to die to my mind. It might seem romantic to some, for me it verged on pure insanity. Love could force people to do strange things. I shook my head and swore to myself to keep her wildly determined gaze in mind forever. She was so young but she preferred death to life.  
  I woke up from my thoughts and saw nearly everything around me in flames. Just now it downed on me in how mortal danger I was. I grabbed a book from the box near the door and fled the scene to never come back.


End file.
